Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan admitted that during the Azadi March, PTI protesters were carrying weapons with them.
Khan’s comments came while speaking on 92 News‘ political talk show ‘Hard Talk’. The former premier said that had the march continued, the clashes between the protestors and the police would have led to anarchy in the country.
“There was already hatred among the people due to raids carried out by the Punjab Police on PTI lawmakers’ houses a day prior to the march. I was 100 per cent sure that the situation would lead to chaos after the protestors would have seen me,” said Khan.
میں نے دھرنا نہ کر کے اس ملک کو انتشار سے بچایا کیونکہ جو اس امپورٹڈ حکومت نے پرامن مظاہرین کیساتھ کیا اسکے نتیجے میں نفرت اور غصہ بہت بڑھ چکا تھا۔ چیئرمین عمران خان #IKon92Newspic.twitter.com/StYUfop8BX
“Our people had pistols on them too. I was afraid that the country will now face riots,” Khan told anchorperson Moeed Pirzada.
Khan further said that the decision to continue the march would have led to hatred against the police and the army and this would create further divisions in the country. He added that this hatred would have only benefitted the thieves who were now in power.
Khan also commented on police constable Kamal Ahmed who was shot dead during a raid of a PTI leader’s house in Lahore’s Model Town.
“We have never engaged in politics of provocation. The government blamed the PTI for the [martyred] constable’s death. Anyone would have thought that a thief has entered a house at 2am.”
The demand for electricity in Pakistan has risen to 28,200 megawatts due to the hot weather, while the supply is only 21,200 megawatts, resulting in a power shortfall of nearly 7,000 megawatts.
According to well-placed sources, the country currently gets 4,635 megawatts of energy from hydropower, 1,060 megawatts from government thermal power plants, and 9,677 megawatts from IPPs. Additionally, due to a lack of oil, gas, and coal, numerous factories have been shut down.
Several areas of the country are experiencing daily loadshedding of 10 to 12 hours due to the expanding shortfall, which is exacerbated by the hot heat.
However, in locations with significant line losses, loadshedding lasts longer than 12 hours.
The scheduled loadshedding technique is not being used due to the lack of data, according to the sources. In Karachi, K-Electric, the city’s sole electricity distribution provider, is imposing daily loadshedding of 9 to 10 hours.
As per reports, the loadshedding will be resolved within the next several months.
Claim: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto reached out to Pakistani students in Columbia University and NYU, both rejected to being his audience for a talk
Fact: Bilawal Bhutto never contacted Pakistani students in NYU or Columbia University and so was never rejected by him
On May 27, Shandana Gulzar Khan, a former PTI MNA made a tweet claiming that she has been told by “a person in a sensitive post”, that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reached out to Pakistani students at Columbia University and New York University, requesting them to arrange a talk with him but both organizations refused. The thread continues onwards and claims that after these two disappointments, Bhutto asked Pakistani students at Cornell to arrange a talk with him, which they first accepted and then at the insistence of the general student body, eventually rejected as well.
This thread gathered 1,622 Likes, RTs and replies and has been shared to at least 562,647 followers on Twitter.
From a person in a sensitive post: “Billawal Bhutto team had contacted Pakistani students at Columbia University NY to arrange a lecture by him during his recent US visit. The students refused. The team then contacted Pakistani students at NY University and they also refused”
— ShandanaGulzarKhan (@ShandanaGulzar) May 27, 2022
Shandana Gulzar Khan’s tweet which refers to Bilawal Bhutto’s rejected request.
The following day, on May 28, the Pakistani Students Association at NYU and the Organization of Pakistani Students at Columbia University both made announcements on Facebook clarifying that Bilawal Bhutto never contacted them so naturally they never rejected his proposal.
To confirm with the final university, we reached out to the Pakistani students’ organization at Cornell on their Facebook page ‘Cornell University Pakistani Students Association’. They directed us to an Instagram post which clarified the same as the other two organizations.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has directed the government to issue notices to former President General Pervez Musharraf, former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and the current PM Shehbaz Sharif for following an “undeclared tacit approval of the policy regarding enforced disappearances.”
The court directed that the federal government shall produce the missing persons before the court on June 17 or justify the failure of the state to effectively investigate.
IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Justice Athar Minallah said, “Musharraf and all other successor chief executives [PM Shehbaz and Khan] shall submit their respective affidavits explaining why the court may not order proceedings against them for alleged subversion of the Constitution in the context of undeclared tacit approval of the policy regarding enforced disappearances and thus putting national security at risk by allowing the involvement of law enforcement agencies, particularly the armed forces.”
The court also noted that the involvement or even a perception of the involvement of the armed forces in acts “amounting to a violation of human rights and freedom of the citizens weakens and undermines the rule of law.”
On Sunday, the high court issued a 15-page order in a case related to the disappearance of journalist Mudassar Mahmood Naro and five other people after their petitions were in their final phases, but the federal government requested an “adjournment.”
The court also noted the fact that how the Pakistani media ignores this form of abuse and that reporting on the matter is not a priority. Moreover, the court also expressed dissatisfaction over the role of parliament in regard to the disappearances. It said that “they are the most important and crucial organs of the state but nothing has been placed on record to indicate that they may have adopted a proactive role to fulfill their Constitutional obligations.”
Journalist Mudassar has been missing since 2018 from Khyber Pakhtunkhua.
Under a new visa scheme, graduates from the world’s finest universities will be able to apply to come to the United Kingdom. The “high-potential individual” path, as per the government, will attract the “brightest and greatest” early in their careers.
According to BBC, alumni of major non-UK universities who graduated within the last five years will be eligible for the scheme. Graduates will be eligible regardless of where they were born, and they will not be required to apply if they have a job offer.
If you have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, you will be awarded a two-year work visa, and if you have a Ph.D., you will be given a three-year work visa. If they achieve certain standards, they will be eligible to switch to other long-term employment visas.
There will be no limit on the number of graduates that are eligible.
A person must have graduated from a university that was ranked in the top 50 of at least two of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, or The Academic Ranking of World Universities in the year they graduated to be eligible.
The government produced an online list of qualified colleges for 2021 that included 20 US universities, including Harvard, Yale, and MIT.
The University of Hong Kong, the University of Melbourne, and the Paris Sciences et Lettres University were among the other 17 qualified universities.
Some scholars, on the other side, have expressed displeasure that no universities from South Asia, Latin America, or Africa have been featured on the list.
It’s a deeply inequitable method, according to Christopher Trisos, director and senior researcher at the University of Cape Town.
“They need to be recognised and including varied skills and in-depth knowledge held by many graduates from institutions in developing nations,” he said, if the UK wants to play a part in addressing the century’s big challenges, such as energy access, climate change, and pandemics.
The visa will cost £715 plus an immigration health premium, which permits migrants to use the NHS in the United Kingdom.
Graduates will be able to bring their families, but they must have a minimum of £1,270 in maintenance funds. They must also pass a security and criminality check and have at least a B1 intermediate level of English proficiency, which is characterised as having the “fluency to communicate with native speakers without effort.”
Changes to the plan allow international students studying in the UK to stay and work for up to two years.
The student visa scheme, which was reintroduced two years ago, overturned a 2012 decision by then-Home Secretary Theresa May, which required international students to leave four months after completing their degree.
The combination of university lists used by the Home Office “provides independent validation for institutions and opens up the option for new foreign universities to progress up the ranks and join this list in the future,” according to a spokesman for the department.
They went on to say that each of the qualified universities attracts students from all over the world, and that there are “many alternative paths eligible for graduates from other universities, including the Graduate, Skilled Worker, and Global Talent routes” for graduates from other universities.
“The approach implies that the UK will grow as a major international hub for innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship,” stated Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that the incumbent government was cursed by Allah to the point that even when they [governemnt officials] were in Madina, people couldn’t stop themselves from chanting slogans against these corrupt leaders. Khan was addressing a lawyers’ convention in Peshawar.
“What was our [PTI’s] fault if ordinary people chanted slogans against these people in Madina? We had kept a Shab-e-Dua on the day it happened. We came to know through social media that slogans had been chanted against them,” said Khan.
I am the chief executive of the country. Who is being addressed by the US, saying that Imran Khan needs to be removed?
Khan once again criticised the government and blamed it for conspiring with the United States (US) to take him out of power.
“This is the first time a democratic government was taken out of power. Since our government was not removed because of corruption, people took to the streets instead of distributing sweets,” said Khan.
Khan explained the conspiracy against him and said that the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu threatened the Pakistani ambassador to the US that you need to remove Imran Khan.
“When I saw the cipher, I thought to myself: I am the prime minister of the country. I am the chief executive of the country. Who are they addressing when they say that Imran Khan needs to be removed?”
“When they say that once he [Imran Khan] is removed, you will be forgiven. I immediately got to know that forgiveness was being given to Cherry Blossom [ Shehbaz Sharif].
They are compromised bootlickers
Khan said that Pakistan has been ruled by the military but two political families [Sharifs and Zardaris] monopolised the political arena and remained in power for the last 62 years.
“They [the then opposition] comprised bootlickers, that’s why the US wanted to bring them back to power.”
“I ruled for three-and-a-half years and they started having issues with my government just because Pakistan wanted to maintain friendly relations with other countries but refused to fight their wars,” he said.
“We had no relation with 9/11. I will not give Pakistan’s bases to America.”
Khan also said that Pakistan neither wanted bad relations with any country nor did it want to become their slave.
I have never seen anyone more filthy than this family
“I have never seen anyone more filthy than this family,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif killed a record number of people between 1997-1998 in police encounters.
Khan took a jibe at the PML-N and said that the Supreme Court had rightly called the Sharif family a “Sicilian Mafia”.
‘I will come back … this Jihad for me’: Khan
“If these people stay in the government, the rule of law in the country will be destroyed,” said Khan.
Talking about PTI’s Azadi March, Khan said that the party has approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).
“We are approaching the SC tomorrow. We will be taking a ruling from the Supreme Court and ask them if we have a democratic right to protest or not. Why were we stopped? How can they stop the chief minister of KP and Gilgit Baltistan?”
Khan said he decided to stop because of police brutality and shelling. “I was afraid that there would be bloodshed and people will die.”
“If the Supreme Court gives us the protection that is one strategy, otherwise I am telling you, I will use my other strategy. We plan ahead for all the hindrances being planted our way. We were not prepared this time. This is Jihad for me. I will not accept this imported and corrupt government.”
Indian singer Sidhu Moose Wala, 28, was shot dead on Sunday by unidentified assailants in Punjab’s Mansa district, a day after the Punjab government curtailed his security cover to crack the VIP culture.
According to Punjab police, Canada-based Goldy Brar has claimed responsibility for the murder of Sidhu.
The singer was touted as a youth icon as he established his name with chartbusters like Jatt Da Muqabla, Dollar, So high and Bambiha Bole.
Now a video from a concert of his in Dubai is going viral in which he shares his plan of visiting Pakistan by the end of this year. He wanted to perform in Lahore and Islamabad. The Game singer was also in talks for the same.
Sidhu first asked from the crowd how many had come from Pakistan to watch his show. He then said that he received many messages from the people of Pakistan to conduct a concert in their country. Listening to their demands, Sidhu then went on to make the most awaited announcement.
He announced from the stage that a live show will first be held in Lahore and the second in Islamabad. He also promised all the fans that the live show will surely be held in this year, 2022, itself. There couldn’t have been happier news for the Pakistani fans of Sidhu Moosewala and it was very well visible in the cheers of the crowd following Sidhu’s announcement.
His mother, Charan Kaur is inconsolable and demands justice for her son. Her last wish to see Sidhu married is left unfilled. She was preparing for Sidhu’s marriage since January 2022, and in one of her interviews, Charan Kaur had mentioned that her son would soon get married and had also revealed that it was a love marriage. The singer was engaged and was all set to get married soon.
Legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a powerhouse vocalist, musician, composer and music director, primarily known for his qawwali. He has been an inspiration to many musicians across the globe.
While Khan is widely credited for introducing qawwali music to the international audience, he has also had a big impact on contemporary South Asian popular music, including Bollywood music.
The Shahenshah-e-Qawwali once opened up about music composers copying his music. He even took names of composers Anu Malik and Viju Shah.
While interacting with Zee TV a few decades ago, Khan was asked about Indian music directors, who were inspired by his work. Responding to the question on who he thought made the ‘best copy’ of his songs and deserved the ‘best copy award’, the Pakistani musician said, “Not best copy, they have done good work. Viju Shah has done well. Anu Malik has also copied me well.
Bollywood has often been called out for plagiarising Khan’s songs.
Something wrong with the bollywood. Originality and creativity at its worst. Just saw DIL GALTI KAR BAITHA HAI’s remix, they r spoiling beautiful songs in the name of commercialize.
Hindi cinema has been accused of adapting and copying NFAK’s qawwalis and songs a few of which include, Mera Piya Ghar Aya, Kitna Pyara Tujhay Rab Ne Banaya’ which happened to be a rip-off NFAK’s song ‘Kina Sona Tenu Rab Ne Banaya’ and another ‘Mujhe Ek Pal Chain Na Awe’ from the film Judaai that happened to be a copy of ‘Sanu Ek Pal Chain Na Awe’ by the legend himself.
The Sindh government has issued a warning to car owners who have not paid their taxes. The Excise, Taxation, and Narcotics Control (ET&NC) Department has been conducting a road inspection for more than a week now. Authorities have inspected a total of 21,303 vehicles across the province.
A total of 1,358 automobiles were seized for various reasons, with the paperwork of 1,958 vehicles also being confiscated during the road check, according to The News.
Mukesh Kumar Chawla, the provincial minister in charge of (ET&NC), has planned a tax-collecting campaign. He went on to say that the campaign will run until June 3, after which the government will take action against automobiles that have not paid their taxes.
Kumar issued a statement urging citizens to pay their taxes as soon as possible. Meanwhile, authorities claim to have recovered over Rs252 million in taxes from non-compliant car owners.
The authorities had collected about Rs21.4 million in taxes from the car owners by the fourth day. Chawla has directed that non-compliant car owners be dealt with harshly by the authorities.
Airlift Technologies, a national grocery delivery service, has laid off 31 per cent of its workforce.
The company posted a statement on its official LinkedIn account confirming the layoff of its workforce; “In the light of the significant downturn in global capital markets, Airlift is undertaking a strategic realignment to reduce the surface area of operations and to increase focus in key areas that drive sustainability and profitability.”
“The decision to part ways with talented teammates has been incredibly challenging for the company. For impacted teammates, Airlift stands committed to providing financial and placement support to help find new roles,” the statement read.
Quick commerce startup Airlift closes down all cities apart from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, lays off 31% staff. pic.twitter.com/hSM8Cz3kYE
Usman Gul, the 33-year-old co-founder, and CEO commented on the company’s decision to permanently shut down, saying, “I think if the lens of change is ‘Did Airlift offer great returns to investors?’ then yes, regrettably, it was unsuccessful. If you’re talking about bringing Pakistan into a new reality or altering the entire ecology, then by that yardstick of success, we’ve come a long way,” Gul told Rest of World.
“In many ways, Airlift raised the bar of ambition for Pakistani startups in a big way. Our teams at Airlift redefined the standard of execution, strategy, building a world-class culture, developing a cutting-edge product, raising sizable fundraising rounds,” Gul continued.
What is the point of raising the greatest series B in the nation if the business fails 11 months later? Gul believed that these were improper inquiries when questioned about the $85 million that Airlift blew through in less than one year. He said that the appropriate questions to ask were: “What enabled Airlift to raise $100 million-plus in three years? That’s never happened in Pakistan before. What did this team do differently?”
Airlift was started in 2019 by Usman Gul, Ahmed Ayub, Awaab Khaakwany, Meher Farrukh, Muhammad Owais, and Zohaib Ali as a mass-transit option that connected consumers with buses at reduced costs. Due to the pandemic, Airlift’s transportation operations were halted in March 2020. During the covid pandemic, the company then pivoted its business plan and launched Airlift Express, a grocery delivery service with $10 million in investment. Airlift, last year in August, secured a mega-round of funding of $85 million dollars.
A former Airlift employee described the layoff as “shocking, unexpected, and heartbreaking.”
WHAT FINANCIAL EXPERTS THINK HAPPENED AT AIRLIFT
Ariba Shahid, Financial Journalist at Profit Magazine and DealStreetAsia, while talking to The Current about the layoffs at Airlift, said, “While downsizing is sad considering people lose their livelihoods, sometimes young startups need to scale back operations, recalibrate and start differently or fresh,” adding “In order to do so, they sometimes downsize. There is nothing wrong in doing so. I don’t think any business downsizes unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Taking about the reason behind the layoffs Ariba added, “There are a number of ways to look at it. One likelihood is that Airlift’s funding was contingent on it attaining milestones. So maybe, they did not get the entire $85 million.”
“The other scenario is that they burned through approximately $10 million a month in customer acquisition costs and expansion. It is difficult for consumers to change their consumption pattern and move onto quick commerce. It also costs a lot to expand and grow, especially internationally, like Airlift did in South Africa. The macroeconomic environment with rising inflation and diminishing purchasing power makes it even more difficult.”
“Airlift was one of the bigger names in the ecosystem. The same way Airlift was used as an example while raising funds, it may be seen as a warning sign. However, the global liquidity crunch plays a bigger role at this point in time, in addition to Pakistan’s weakening macroeconomic sentiments.”
“There is no right or wrong way to run a startup at this point because the ecosystem is very nascent. There are no examples locally to follow. However in order to succeed startups need to ensure they are clean, transparent, do not fudge numbers, accept realistic valuations, stop obsessing over large rounds, and know when to stop blitz-scaling,” she added, talking about Pakistani startups.
While answering a question about the situation of Pakistan’s job market Ariba said, “Too soon to say that but yes, one can expect more layoffs across industries considering working capital will be more expensive, political instability, low investment inflows.”
Aitlift’s Lahore office
Dr Aqdas Afzal, Program Director and Assistant Professor of Economics, Habib University while talking to The Current about the possible reason behind the layoffs said, “The reason is not related to the Pakistani market, there is an economic downturn in the entire world. The inflation in UK and US is highest in last 40 years.”
He continued by adding that, “the main input of Airlift’s delivery is fuel and as considering the fuel inflation, they have withdrawn their services from those markets and cities from where they don’t get much sales and find it difficult to drive “sustainability and profitability.”
“I don’t think Pakistani startups are doing anything wrong, as we have seen they have been able to get get a lot of seed money.”
He further said, “In the coming days you will see a lot more startups booming in Pakistan.”
“The government needs to provide reliable, fast speed and affordable internet, because it is slowly becoming the weakest link for Pakistani startups.”
“I don’t think that Pakistan’s job market is collapsing,” said Afzal while answering a question about Pakistan’s job market.
He added, “We are in low value-added end of the spectrum in terms of freelancing skills and we should see if our educational institutions are teaching the level of coding that freelancers around the world are doing.”
Aitlift’s Lahore office
WHAT LAID-OFF EMPLOYEES HAVE TO SAY
Airlift released a database of the names of113 staffers who were abruptly terminated from their positions and were then ‘open to work.’ The employees listed in the database served in various departments of the cash-strapped venture, including operations, human resources, customer service, rider support specialists, and several software engineers, that were based in Pakistani cities including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, and Peshawar, with the remainder in South Africa.
“The layoff news shocked the entire workforce as we had no idea the company would announce a massive layoff along with closing key warehouses in different cities,” an employee at Airlift Head Office Lahore, told The Current, “I was aware that the stock market was collapsing dramatically, with some well-known corporations laying off a large number of staff, but I had no idea that the capital market’s volatility would have such an immediate impact on Airlift.”
According to another insider, the company was unable to generate sufficient profit to entice international investors, which is why layoffs had to be done.
Khan revealed that he is looking for work and has undergone three job interviews so far. “After the news of the Airlift went viral on social media, I was approached by a couple of companies and individuals, although I have yet to receive job confirmation,” he claimed.
“I have had a wonderful time at the Airlift. The management took good care of the overall staff. The payouts were never delayed,” Husnain Raza, who was employed as a Rider Operations Specialist at Airlift barely a year ago, told The Current. “The company had to take this horrendous step or it could’ve been dissolved.”
Ex-Operations Lead at Airlift Faisalabad, stated that he is not concerned since the company has offered to compensate the employees who were laid off without notice with 1-2 months of salary. “I assume I’ll find another job until then,” he asserted.
The Current has reached out to the founders of Airlift for a comment on why the layoffs took place and about the future of the company. We are still waiting for a comment and until we get one, here is the statement issued by the company on the dismissal of their staff.
GLOBAL IMPACTOF THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN
The impact of the global economy is not just being seen at Airlift or in Pakistan.
Cutbacks, contract terminations, and layoffs have impacted at least 5,600 startup employees since the beginning of 2022 at a number of unicorns, global tech companies in India, and growth-stage startups.
Startups like Unacademy, Furlenco, and many others have cut back and downsized in order to improve profitability. Better.com, a mortgage technology company based in the United States, has also asked employees to sign voluntary separation agreements. These layoffs occurred at Better.com’s India operations, where another 920 employees were let go earlier this month, following a total of over 3,000 laid off by April.
Unacademy, the edtech unicorn, laid off over 1,000 employees and shut down its online education platform, PrepLadder, in April 2022. More than 800 employees at BYJU’s-owned WhiteHat Jr were told to resign because they refused to work from the office.
Furthermore, Cars24, a marketplace, laid off workers in order to cut costs and move toward automation. In this downsizing, the unicorn may lay off up to 600 employees soon.
Alongside startups, some big names, such as Netflix, have cut staff this year, with some blaming the COVID-19 pandemic and others faulting ‘overhiring’ during periods of speedy growth. In 2022, Robinhood, Glossier, and Better are just a few of the technology firms that have significantly reduced their staff numbers.
The capital markets have taken a beating in 2022, and this has filtered down to the private sector. Fears about inflation, rising interest rates, and geopolitical issues have all contributed to a volatile financial market.
Startups, particularly those that profited from a pandemic growth that is now slowing, are beginning to feel the strain as well. Valuations have begun to fall, especially at the later phase, and entrepreneurs say it is far more challenging to raise new funding in such a situation.
A multitude of companies that experienced pandemic-related surges are experiencing a correction as a result of a variety of factors, including rising inflation, economic distress, war, and shifting consumer taste buds. Companies such as Meta and Twitter have publicly announced hiring freezes, and Snap confirmed this week that it is slowing hiring as revenue targets are missed.
If a company is bleeding money, it will most likely begin to lay off employees, preserving only those who are required to work to retain the business’s level of operations. If the company dissolves, the remaining workers may be laid off as well.
Among the most likely causes for layoffs is that the company is trying to cut costs in some way. This could be because the company needs to pay off debts, fewer sales or the company no longer has the financial backing of investors like Airlift.
As technological advancements and automation grow common in businesses, employers sometimes lay off employees in order to cut costs and reduce position redundancy. Moreover, if the employee satisfies certain requirements and is prepared to make the change, the organisation may commit to finding another role for them and transferring them to the position.
